TV/Radio

Remote patrol

By SHARON GINN
Published February 17, 2006

CHECK IT OUT

With NBC's NASCAR contract ending this season, the network's final broadcast of the Daytona 500 - at least for the foreseeable future - is Sunday (2:30 p.m., Ch. 8). But for veteran reporter and prerace host Bill Weber, it will be his first Daytona as lead play-by-play announcer.

Weber replaced Allen Bestwick in the booth in July when NBC shook up its on-air team. Bestwick took over as lead pit reporter. Weber, who remained as prerace host, got mixed reviews alongside analysts Wally Dallenbach and Benny Parsons.

"I'm trying to make myself a better play-by-play guy as each race goes by," Weber said. "I hope to live up to the guys who have done (the Daytona 500) before me."

The pregame show begins at 1:30 p.m., and NBC plans a tribute to Dale Earnhardt, who died in a final-lap crash in Daytona five years ago. Expect much chatter between Dallenbach and Parsons about bump drafting, which NASCAR said it will monitor by putting four new spotters around the track.

"There are guys that know how to do it, and there are guys that don't," Dallenbach said. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you don't bump someone when you're in a corner at 180 miles an hour."

Former CBS college football analyst Todd Blackledge will return to ESPN next season after a seven-year absence. He will join play-by-play announcer Mike Patrick for College Football Saturday Primetime.

Texas' 41-38 Rose Bowl win, the highest-rated college football game in 19 years, will be available on DVD ($19.95) Tuesday at espnshop.com.

Logging this in for the relatively few NBA fans in Tampa Bay: The league's 55th annual All-Star Game airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on TNT and 1470-AM.

College baseball returns when No.2 Florida travels to No.16 Miami for a two-game series beginning Saturday. Sun Sports airs the games live at 1 Saturday and noon Sunday.

Sun Sports' latest edition of Inside the Lightning profiles defenseman Darryl Sydor and premiers at 8 p.m. Monday.

"I'm not a jock, I'm an artiste. I don't like to be called a jock because that makes me think of spandex-covered football players. It's not - not me. I'm in rhinestones and velvet, not spandex." - U.S. skater Johnny Weir, to Mary Carillo "When is a tie like a win? When you're wearing the jersey of Latvia." - USA studio host Bill Clement on the U.S. team's 3-3 tie Wednesday with Latvia, which had only two NHL players

[Last modified February 17, 2006, 02:15:35]